DIY - Cheap HTPC

[Fulmar]

So, three day weekend?  DVD player on the fritz?  Can't get the wife to okay a $400 HTPC build (*see "Why do we need it?")?  Have old parts lying around?

Why not make your own?!

So for a while our bedroom DVD player had a hard time reading discs.  Most likely because it was a) a Daewoo B) only $100 when DVD players hit the market C) dirty lens D) a Daewoo.  Last week I decided to youtube some videos on how to clean the lens, as in actually opening it up and not buying one of those disc cleaner CDs.  After some surgery, she didn't make it.  Upon bootup the video was all messed up and eventually it wouldn't turn on anymore.  Not sure what happened since I just got at the lens, but thats not the point.

But upon opening up the DVD player which was fairly large in size, I noticed there was a lot of internal room that was unused.  It was basically a modified computer DVD drive with 2 circuit boards on either side.  Somewhat inspired by TilDeath's case modding thread, I decided to get to work.

Parts used:
FIC FA-13 Motherboard
Intel 933mhz Pentium 3
ATI Radeon 9200LE
Sound Blaster out of an old dell
Antec PSU
Seagate 18gb HD
Toshiba DVD Drive (not shown in pictures, will probably just rest on top of the case, velcroed or something)
Windows XP

Cost?  Well I didn't have all the tools I needed.  I had to buy a couple of Cobalt bits to drill through the steel casing.  Some reinforced Dremel cutting discs.  Some bump-ons for resting the PSU and HD internally and to quiet the noise of vibration.  $15

The project isn't done yet, like I said I have to get the DVD player mounted and I'm thinking about painting it.  As you can see, the video card and sound card stick up, I'll have to design something to cover them.  I may or may not paint it.

The wife hasn't seen this yet.  But I expect the first words to be, "what the $#!% is this thing?"

[BaldEagl]

I've got an old JVC DVD player sitting here that doesn't track right anymore too.  You've at least got me thinking.

Does that card have a TV tuner?  If not you're still missing the most important part of an HTPC.

You should have waited to get low profile video and tuner cards.  I wonder if they would have fit.  Also, I think I might have tried building a seperate enclosure for the PSU and just set it behind the main box, maybe even with a set of connectors built into the back of the case.

Anyway, clever idea.

[Fulmar]

Well I didn't want to spend money on any parts.  I do have a TV Tuner card, but its and old analog ATI TV Wonder VE with no hardware encoding.  So I can't really record TV with it because the CPU isn't fast enough.  Plus 18gb HD isn't big.

So far I just use it as a DVD player and trying out Media Portal.

[AirFlyer]

That looks... very dangerous lol.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Yeah good idea but you should have used low profile PSU and displaycards.

[Fulmar]

Yeah good idea but you should have used low profile PSU and displaycards.

Ideally yes, but this project was almost free.  It's quit safe actually, everything is properly grounded and insulated.

[Denholm]

Your pictures made me feel better. I just drilled some extra ventilation holes into our family's HP computer. I thought they looked horrible, however they look similar to the holes you drilled into that DVD player casing. Now I feel much better.

[Fulmar]

Yeah, I debated if I wanted to do slots with a dremel cutting wheel, or drill holes.  I thought the holes would look better....I don't think so now.

[Dragon]

I think it looks like a perfect place to put on of these:

[Eagler]

pretty neat but you did all that just to save the cost of a case?

[Fulmar]

pretty neat but you did all that just to save the cost of a case?

I did it for a few reasons.
1) I was pretty bored one Saturday
2) The current DVD drive had failed as per original post
3) Perk my wife's interest in why $400 down the road can build something pretty sweet (which after first being received as "WTF is this," has been followed with "oh we can do all that with this thing?")
4) I was pretty bored one Saturday